Gerber Files

Wow you do know your stuff... I am amazed at the size and scope of

Altera/Quartus... Can you answer me one question....I have reviewed the

file types within the Quartus II software: and they are the following:

.vhd, .ddb, .dxf, .dqs, .ref, .hpp, .cpp, .cdb, .rdb, .cbl, .sci, .options,

.tcl, .tmf, .ipx, .hsd, .pkg, .lmf, .itk, .oaw, .xsd, .ttf, .rbf, .jbc, .svf,

.jam, .hexout, .maxplus2, .logic, .tpl, .dacr, .pll, ..etc..etc...

A project file in Quartus has these file extensions:

.fsf, .tdf, .cmp, .rpt, .ssf, .qws, .psf, .pin, .eqn, .csf, etc..etc..

and the Gerber file extensions:

.tsk, .bmk, .bot, .bps, .bsk, .drl, .gnd, .pcb, .tmk, .top, .tps....etc...

I realize that the file extensions above are for a lot of different

processes... I am sure you would recognize a lot of them... .tcl,

.cpp, .dxf ...some linux extensions, some scripting languages (perl)...

I am not an electrical engineer... I have a computer science degree

and math degree... I want to understand the logic behind Altera/Quartus...

In simple terms: a standard motherboard... has power supply, electronic

components, I/O devices, chips, memory, intel, amd, etc...pin placements, etc...

It would seem the Gerber extensions has the electronic structure for the motherboards....I don't see how Altera has a totally different structure... Is this the Bill Gates syndrome... All over again... An electronic structure built around Altera/Quartus???? Where does Gerber fit in ???? Please forgive my

stupidy on this... I want to understand how they have integrated the

design process in creating/making the motherboards ???? From concept

to final product...